Happy New Year! May 2016 bring you happiness, health, a bit of wealth, and many opportunities.  Tis the season to make resolutions, or resolve not to make resolutions, and I'm always on the fence between the two. I like the idea of a fresh start but surely the beginning of a new year, and all the hype and expectations, will just set me up to fail... That said, probably like all would-be writers, I do vow to write more. That is, write stories - not tweets, FB posts, features about writing, editing comments, book reviews, oh and blog-posts - and enjoy writing them. That's the thing, actually. Any resolutions I would make would be boring, safe, obvious. But, one of the many fascinating things about the world of writing is that there are always people out there with the best suggestions and intentions and I wish I'd thought of them first.  So, from a random, stratified,...

With A Blonde Bengali Wife well and truly reprinted, having reached #1 bestseller status (and still snugly in the top ten - #3 as I write) and gathering some positive reviews, I remain very grateful to all the people who are supporting it in whatever way.This month I want to take a break from the writing and put the spotlight back on Bhola's Children. All is going well in the community. The new director, Zakir, and his young family, are continuing to settle in and call the place home. Zakir is happy to get involved at all levels - though being decorated might not have been in his original job description! Meanwhile, his wife and daughters show off the more peaceful side of the boundary.In addition to the woodwork and carpentry, the farming and agriculture projects, the metal workshop is really taking off (it's a bed frame in the picture) and offers another skill and train opportunity...

Remember the old saying that a shoemaker's child is never well-shod? I am guilty of that this month: so busy writing elsewhere about A Blonde Bengali Wife, I've neglected my dear old blog! Then again, said blog has always been more of an on-line diary than an interactive and dynamic example of social media. Following the last couple of weeks where I've been 'appearing' on blogs that are outstanding, I'm quite tempted to revert to the old TV programme and suggest you leave here and 'Why Don't You... Go and do something less boring instead...?'But first - Before you go, do read on and find out how the new, re-edited A Blonde Bengali Wife became an Amazon Kindle eBook Bestseller (just rolls off the tongue) in ALL the categories in which it's marketed (UK and dotcom) and even hit #1 in the UK's World Literature/Asia. It's hovering just below there as...

A Blonde Bengali Wife, the book and the blog, are now five years old (the story, of course, goes way back to 2002). This means that my initial contract with the publishers, LL-Publications is up, which coincides with their relocation to the USA, and my literary agent, Dinah Wiener, is now semi-retired (though remains as active as ever with Bhola's Children).  The book has, therefore, been out of print since June, but I've finished my PhD - yes, passed the viva and still haven't tired of the joke 'there's a doctor in the house' - so theoretically I have some free time.Could there ever be a better time to step back, take stock, and decide the future of it all?  Does A Blonde Bengali Wife fade gracefully away, her job done? Or does she get a second lease of life? As the author, I don't want to see her go; I love her, warts (aka typos, unnecessary adverbs and...

The end of the Edinburgh Festival, the search for new school wellies, and the constant nagging feeling that I really must get the boiler fixed...clockwork symptoms that the end of summer ('summer' if you've spent a lot of it in Scotland or Ireland) is nigh.It's been the first summer in five years that I haven't been working on my PhD and (poor title to this post notwithstanding; at the very least it should read 'the-lower-but-hopefully-adequate-end-of-highbrow)** it has gone by in something of a daze. I am delighted that it's given me time to read some gems of non-PhD related fiction, the absolute best being 'The Days the Crayons Quit' and its sequel 'The Day the Crayons Came Home', both written by Drew Daywelt and illustrated by Oliver Jeffries.  Seriously - look out for them; I promise equal appeal for 5 and 45 year-olds.And, even better, it has given me time to spend on...